That "sponsored post" from my local coffee shop was actually a full-on PR disaster

So a shop called Brew & Bean on 5th Street posted this thing on Instagram saying they were donating 50% of sales to a food bank, right? Turns out they just slapped the graphic together without actually contacting the food bank first, and the food bank put out a statement saying they had no clue about it. Now the shop is stuck in this awful cycle of deleting comments and posting half-hearted apologies that don't even address why they lied about the partnership. Has anyone else dealt with a local brand faking a charity tie-in like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

alicecooper10d ago

Did you catch if they ever actually donated anything at all in the end? I've seen this happen with a few local places near me, and the sad truth is most people just move on to the next coffee shop within a week. The real fix is to actually call the food bank first, get their blessing, and then announce it, not the other way around. I mean, if they had just been honest and said "we're donating 50% of today's sales to a local food bank" without claiming a partnership, it might have been fine. But faking the whole thing just makes them look bad for months, and it's hard to walk that back.

graceblack2d ago

Remember reading a piece on this exact thing a couple months back, some bakery got caught using a food bank's logo without permission. They ended up having to do a public apology and actually donated way more than they originally promised just to save face. It's wild how often this happens, feels like every few weeks another small business gets caught pulling this. The food bank probably would've been happy with a smaller, honest donation instead of being dragged into this mess.

derekjenkins10d ago

Man, that is just lazy and dishonest. I read an article a while back about how some brands pull these fake charity stunts to look good without doing the actual work. Alicecooper is right, they could have just said they were donating without claiming a partnership and it would have been fine. But they went the extra mile to lie, and now they're stuck in damage control mode. People will forget in a week or two, sure, but the food bank probably won't. That trust is hard to get back, especially when you didn't even bother to ask first.